How serious is a Broken Valve Spring?

How serious is a broken valve spring? Welcome to Mercie J Auto Care where compassion and craftsmanship come together. I'm Rick Smith, master certified technician. We just had an 2007 Chevy Suburban come in, 5.3 L engine and the concern was an intermittent misfire and a code of a P0303, which means a cylinder misfire on number 3. So what we have is on your vehicle, we have a camshaft and the camshaft rolls around and if you can see, there’s these kind a little bumps on it. Those bumps on a Chevy engine what would make a lifter go up and down to push rod to a rocker arm and eventually what that does is that opens and closes a valve. I don’t have a valve with me today, but they look kind of like an overgrown golf tee. To close that valve, we use a spring and in this case you can see the spring is broken in half and so what happens is it doesn't close the valve. So in most cases you just have a misfire, you replace the spring and you get it handled. If it goes for too long and the valve doesn’t close often enough, then the valve can burn. I hope that helps you understand a little bit more about a broken valve spring. Until next time, Safe travels and blessings to you.